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Jacob Conner Joins the St. Mary's Ryken Community as Director of Community Wellness

Jack Conner

Mr. Jacob Conner has joined the St. Mary's Ryken community as the new Director of Wellness. Most recently Coach Conner was a strength and conditioning coach for Olympic Sports at Virginia Military Institute. 

Coach Conner was previously a wellness coach at Bowen Wellness Center at the YMCA where he was responsible for supervising routines to ensure proper form and safety and provide exercise guidance to members. 

"My immediate goals as the Director of Community Wellness are to work with the athletic staff and coaches to create a culture in the strength and conditioning room of accountability, attention to detail and leadership among the student-athletes and teams," said Coach Conner. "In conjunction with the coaching staffs at St. Mary's Ryken, I plan to develop and implement comprehensive strength and conditioning opportunities for all student-athletes on a year-round basis."

Coach Conner is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and has an American Heart Association Basic Life Support certification.

Additionally, he will also join the St. Mary's Ryken faculty to teach classes as part of our health and wellness curriculum, such as weight training, high intensity training, health and nutrition and strength and conditioning. Coach Conner has a master's degree in Exercise Science with an emphasis in Strength and Conditioning from Appalachian State University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Lynchburg in Exercise Physiology. 

“We are blessed to have Coach Conner join us", said Athletic Director, Coach Jon Lombardo. "Jake has worked on the community side of wellness as well as multiple collegiate sports performance programs at the Division 1 level. His ownership, maturity and vision as the Director of Community Wellness immediately stood out during the search process. Jake will lead by example in the classroom, in the community and training our student-athletes to compete at a championship level in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. It became evident through speaking to his mentors, he not only is the right coach for such an important role on our campus, but a great man of character to support our mission and vision. I look forward to working with and watching Coach Conner build a transformational experience through creating a championship culture.”

Coach Conner concludes: "I am thrilled to have this opportunity to join an incredibly tight-knit community such as St. Mary's Ryken, where there is an established tradition of success in both academics and athletics. Go Knights!"

For more information, please contact SMR Athletic Director, Jon Lombardo at jonathan.lombardo@smrhs.org.

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